Nobel writer submitted to Spanish censors
Mario Vargas Llosa changed his books during the Franco regime
A newspaper has uncovered evidence that Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa acquiesced to censors during Franco's regime in Spain to get his books published.
El Pais delved into the archives of the section for bibliographical orientation and unearthed letters written between the censors and the Peruvian novelist, who holds dual citizenship with Spain.
The censors were disturbed by words such as "balls" and "shit" and didn't like the immorality featured in his novels.
One censor called 1969's Conversation in the Cathedral "Marxist, anticlerical, antimilitary and obscene."
In responding to requests from the authorities to change words or lines, the author agreed to replace parts that were considered too rude or obscene.
The 74-year-old writer, now a visiting professor at Princeton University, established himself as a literary force with those first few novels in the 1960s.
The City and the Dogs (1963), The Green House (1965) and Conversation in the Cathedral are considered classics in Spain.
Fundamentals unchanged
Vargas Llosa spoke with El Pais, admitting to what happened and divulging that he changed eight paragraphs in The City and the Dogs after having lunch with the chief censor, Carlos Robles Piquer.
In a letter to Piquer, the writer says he made the modifications "because they did not change the book in either content, fundamentals or form."
However, in that same letter, Vargas Llosa does emphasize that he still hasn't changed his mind about his "opposition to the principals of censorship, convinced as I am that literary creation should be a totally free act."
The 2010 Nobel Prize winner in literature told El Pais that his Spanish publishers reversed the alterations in their second edition.